Are You Watching?

Census - Added 2-9-2009

The constitution, foundation and anchor for the US system of freedom and government, clearly defines the responsibility of the Census as belonging solely to the Commerce Department. The 44th President and staff are now planning on moving he responsiblity of his critical function to the Whitehouse directly. What does this mean? What are the risks? What would be the benefit?

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer!

What were some of the highlights of intelligence from 2008? Below are a few examples I thought you might find amusing:

Number One Idiot of 2008

I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center. Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter in to the emergency room right away.

Here's your sign, lady. Wear it with pride.

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Number Two Idiot of 2008

Early this year, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. Shortly after they took it for a float on the river, the y noticed a Coast Guard helicopter coming toward them. It turned out that the chopper was homing in on the emergency locater beacon that activated when the raft was inflated.

They are no longer employed at Boeing.

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Number Three Idiot of 2008

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the Branch and wrote this, 'Put all your money in this bag.' While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller's window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to the Wells Fargo Bank. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America.

Looking somewhat defeated, the man said, 'OK' and left. He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

Don't bother with this guy's sign. He probably couldn't read it anyway.

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Number Four Idiot of 2008

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs.. He immediately mailed in his $40.

Wise guy........
But you still get a sign

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Number Five Idiot of 2008

A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, 'Because I don't believe you are over 21..'

The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she didn't believe him. At this point, the robber took his driver's license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk.

The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license.

They arrested the robber two hours later.

This guy definitely needs a sign.

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Idiot Number Six of 2008

A pair of Michigan robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers.
The first one shouted, 'Nobody move!' When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.

This guy doesn't even deserve a sign.

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Idiot Number Seven of 2008

Arkansas : Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back knocking him unconscious. It seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass.

The whole event was caught on videotape.

Yep, here's your sign..

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Idiot Number Eight of 2008

We live in a semi-rural area, (Weyauwega, Wisconsin ), and we recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason:
'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! - I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'
IDIOT!!

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STAY ALERT! They walk among us, . . . and they REPRODUCE . . . . . . and unfortunately they vote.

You Know What They Say

As a coach and parent I come across sayings, quotes and mottos which I think are worth remembering.  Below each is where I first heard this

"Anything worth learning can't be taught."

(My dad)

"Hard work and determination beats talent when talent doesn't work hard!"

(My daughter)

Winners never quit....
Quitters never win....
Winners are tired!

(Unknown, I added the last line)

Something To Think About

I received the following short summaries from an email forwarded to me. The politics of these statements can be interpreted in several different ways but there is more than politics in what's being said. You decide:

*****

When in England at a conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building' by George Bush.

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb Bush stunt? He sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.

At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A group of American retired teachers, recently went to France on tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it." "Impossible. Americans always have to show passports on arrival in

France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained.

"When I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any damn Frenchmen to show it to."

You could have heard a pin drop .

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Leave a comment about these remarks, if you care to.

iPod Quality and....Support? Should you buy an iPod?

On December 16th, 2005 my wife and I ordered an Apple iPod Video 30GB for our daughters 13th birthday. She had been talking about it for nearly a year. We told her we needed to run an errand and to get in the car. We drove about 20 miles to a mall at Jantzen Beach Oregon to the Circuit City store. She was pretty frustrated because it was her birthday and she would rather be home hanging out instant messaging friends rather than running another technology errand with her parents. Eventually we walked up to the iPod cases and accessories. I asked her which case she thought was the best one. She was frustrated and ask “why, I don't have an iPod?” About that time I handed here a prepaid receipt and said that she ought to pick out a case for the iPod that she could pick up over at the will-call counter. The grin started slow and then went to disbelief - “you're joking” she said. After she realized that it was real, we required that she pick out and pay for a case to protect the device. About 7 months after she got it we experienced the first problem – the iPod was locked and there was no apparent way to unlock it. To get around this problem we updated the iPod software and it cleared, solved the problem and no loss of data.

Ipod happiness continued through the 2006 Christmas season. On December 30th, 2006 – 1 year and 14 days after she got the device – the iPod died. Through iTunes on Windows you could play movies and songs stored on the iPod but no amount of reseting, rebooting or chanting would allow the control wheel to start working. Since the Apple defined process would not work, we tried the Apple software reload to reset the system completely. The reload process seemed to complete and the device went into language selection mode after a restart. Since the control wheel would still not work, the process was a total failure. After this I started the service request process on the Apple web site. This was an interesting journey that concluded with us being requested to return the unit to Apple and to pay a $255 repair bill. This seemed totally unreasonable to us. A company that is as people oriented as Apple would not possibly expect a customer to pay 85% of the purchase prices to simply diagnose and swap out the failing part.

We visited the Apple store at a different mall in Oregon and one of the sales associated suggested that we return with the device and seek the assistance of one the Apple Genius Bar team. He said they might know what to do to fix the problem and, since the device was just slightly out of warranty, could offer some intermediate solution such as selling us an extended warranty and swapping out the device. After waiting a reasonable 30 minutes to actually get to speak to a genius we watched as he simply repeated the same steps we had already tried, remarking that “maybe it will work here!” At the conclusion of our time, he offered no help from Apple and started to scribble the names of several non Apple company web sites that might be able to help.

So, where are we know? No where! My daughter spend $40 of her 2006 Christmas money on some new music and videos and has no place to play them – apart from the desktop computer they are on. One of the reputable, non-Apple, repair facilities I contacted says the worst case repair cost would be $170 (56% of the purchase price) to repair the device. Just to figure out what it would take requires a $29 (10% of the purchase price) fee to get it there and back. Now an updated 2006 iPod Video is priced at $249.00.

It seems like Apple could do better here!

I'm in no hurry to spend family funds on an Apple replacement product. Most companies that want 85% of the purchase price to fix a product don't survive.

I looked at an Apple Mini the other day and was thinking that it might be really nice for the computer we have in the kitchen of our home for school work but I can't see owning a product that demands an extended warranty to manage repair costs.

What is the purpose of this blog? I wanted to share the story with others so they might be less surprised when they discover just how expensive it is to repair an iPod that is 3% older than the warranty period. All I would like is for a reasonable fee to return the device to working status.

Update - 01/15/2007

We have researched many different MP3 players. There are some very good players available from a variety of vendors. The Creative Zen line is interesting as is the MS Zune. I haven't persued a better understanding for the repair costs of the other devices. Since my daughter has invested a fair amount of money in videos for her iPod, I ordered her a replacement iPod from Apple. It is a 30gb iPod Video unit which is refurbished. It carries a 1year warranty and the extended warranty can be added. This is like getting a repair for $180 which is better than some options but still equates to 60% of the original purchase price. It does have a warranty that is considerably longer than those associated with a repair.

Elevator Etiquette

You find yourself standing at the doorway to one or more elevators. You're pretty sure you know which direction you need to go so you push the appropriate button. The light inside illuminates the button to confirm your selection and you wait. You might actually be in a hurry to get where you are going. As you wait you don't realize others in the building needing to change floors might already be riding the elevator. Suddenly, the bell sounds to indicate the arrival of an elevator car. You look to see if it's the one headed the same direction as you selected. It is! You step up to the doors and as soon as they open you dash into the elevator car.

Did it ever occur to you that there may be passengers inside the car waiting to exit? Maybe you should have waited for the doors to open and any departing passengers to clear the car before you stormed into the car as though nobody else could possibly be using the same elevator.

Great Achievment by Murrayhill Little League All-Stars

Murrayhill Little League Majors All-Stars are arriving home in Portland Oregon today (August 28th, 2006.) This group of young men, their manager, and coaches practiced as a team, played as a team, fought as a team, won as a team, and lost as a team. During their post season journey the team stacked up the following accomplishments:

• Finished first place in Oregon District 4 Little League
• Finished first place in Oregon State Little League
• Finished first place in Northwest Regional Little League
• Finished 2nd place in USA Little League
• Tied for 3rd in World Little League
  

During this journey, the team won 18 and lost only 2 games. Just 2 defeats during games against the finest district, state, regional, and national Little League teams. During the World Series tournament, the team put together some impressive come from behind victories, as a team, to win games that seemed out of reach. Every player on this young team contributed in key ways throughout the tournament. There were key hits as well as phenomenal defensive plays that made ESPN refer to the team from Oregon as the "come back kids." The never say never attitude these players brought to the field is as much an American tradition as baseball itself. This kind of stick to it attitude is what makes this game and this country special.

Great achievements are borne on great effort and team work.

Way to go guys!

Thanks for all of the exciting play and baseball memories!